The importance of grammar

By: Runa Nesje

I think that when learning a second language, it often (personally experienced) happens that the main focus while learning is just get the basic of the language and to be understood when communicating orally with someone in the foreign language. The world we live in today, a lot of communication happens on the internet with other people from other countries. I think that it is very important that we have the grammatical rules for the English language we have today. Without them, I think it would be almost impossible to communicate with other people from other countries if no one followed the same rules.

I think the reasons why a lot of pupils dislike grammar so much, is that grammar can be at times a bit boring and hard, especially if you struggle with it in your mother tongue, than it can be even harder in a foreign language. And if the pupil struggles with it at an early age, it will possible for the rest of their life relate grammar to something boring or difficult. Here I think it is important for the teacher to not only have the standard lessons on the black board, but have more varity if the lesson is only goning to be about grammar.

I do not have that much experience with teaching grammar and in my last practice period, I did not do any grammar teaching. The pupils did not have that much about grammar when we were there. But almost every week, the pupils would have glossary tests, with glossaries from texts they had been working with that week. In primary school, I actually enjoyed glossary tests, and I think that they are a great way to expand the pupil’s vocabulary. And it is not that difficult, if the pupils, just a little time before the test revice the glossary they can do very well. And if as a teacher you only uses glossary or for example verb conjugations you know the pupils will manage at their level. 

Importance of Grammar in The EFL Classroom

By Elias Stenersen

Grammar is a part of the English language that can be challenging to teach and boring to learn in the EFL classroom. The many rules and exceptions of grammar can seem unnecessary from the pupils’ perspective, but they are in fact very important. The correct use of grammar will create sentences that are understandable and that makes sense when writing and speaking English. Pupils in the EFL classroom are not exposed to the English language at a daily basis and therefore it is important that they learn the grammatical rules and aspects of English and how to use it correctly.   

Repeating rules, finding nouns, adjectives, verbs and learning the different tenses can be, as mentioned above, boring for pupils to learn. However, it is a crucial part of the English language, and important to learn in order to be able to be understood by other speakers of English. Without the correct grammar, sentences can become unclear and even impossible to understand. That is why I believe grammar is very important when teaching grammar for non-native speakers of English in the EFL classroom.

An important part of English grammar is to know lexical words (Nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs) and knowing how to apply them correctly. Since I have very little experience in teaching English grammar, I used the book Introducing English Grammar to get some ideas.

Task A.

               Read the following text and underline the verbs.

Task B.

               Write the verbs from task A in simple present, past and future tense.

Task C.

               Read the following text and insert the correct verbs in the correct form.

Task A will help the students remember what a verb is and help them recall what they have previously learned about verbs. Task B is going to help them recall and further understand the pattern of how verbs are written in the different tenses. Task C will help the pupils further understand how verbs should be applied to complete sentences as well as they get to practice their conjugation of verbs into the correct tense according to the rest of the text. 

Grammar in Teaching a Second Language

By Eskil Løkke

            In the noble endeavor of learning English, there are of course many different “topics” one must go over to have full understanding of it. Among them is grammar. In learning English as a second language, there is a small controversy on the importance of grammar. Many believe that grammar does not need to be studied specifically, since most people understand the basic patterns of the language and can make themselves understood without extra grammar training. However, many other believe that teaching grammar would help the learners to be more specific in their word-choice, and that it would make them more efficient in the use of the second language. I tilt more heavily over to group number two, as I believe that efficiency and accuracy in language is very important in making oneself understood. I believe that ultimately that is the goal of learning a new language, to be able to express thoughts and ideas effectively to a wider audience.

In this part, I will explain how I would go about teaching 5th graders phrases, clauses and sentences. I would start the lecture out with the “traditional” way of learning, I would write the words (sentence, phrase and clause + variations) on the board along with definitions and examples. I start with this so that if all else fails, they’ll have the essentials they need to get the gist of what these points are. The next part, however will be a bit different. Since the students are aware of the variations, I will have them write poems, but each line has to be a specific type of clause. I will create various templates that the students will have to go through to finish this part of the subject.

Example:

a subordinate clause,
an independent clause:

An infinitive phrase and a prepositional phrase,
An infinitive phrase and a prepositional phrase,
An infinitive phrase and a prepositional phrase,
An infinitive phrase and a prepositional phrase,

A final independent clause.

Model:

Because humans are good,
they know these things are good:

To sleep past noon on Saturdays,
To help friends with problems,
To read books in front of the fireplace,
To gaze up toward the stars,

These are good ways of the human.

This is one example of the exercises I would give the students. It helps the students quickly identify the different phrases/clauses and they would be able to see which is which very quickly. Also, I feel like it’s more memorable to write poems using specific clauses/phrases, instead of doing standard work-sheets that go in circulation from year to year.

The importance of grammar

By Helene Lundberg

When you learn a new language, I think it is essential to learn grammar for that language. I think grammar is a very important part of learning a 2^nd language, in my opinion it is crucial to understand how to use the language you are trying to learn. English is a language with many rules for grammar, at the same time it has exceptions to these rules. To be able to communicate and make yourself understood, you should understand how to use the English grammar. With several exceptions to the rules, it can be easy for people who are not very familiar with the grammar to conjugate or mix words so that the meaning of what you are trying to express change. You can of course make yourself understood without knowing grammar, but it is easier to be misunderstood. If you use correct grammar, you will sound more professional and make a good impression, especially if you are trying to apply for something abroad. Therefore, in conclusion, I think grammar is a very important part of understanding English and to make yourself understood.

I have not taught or observed a grammar lesson, but I find grammar exciting, and I hope I can share some enthusiasm with future pupils. I always enjoyed when the class got to participate in something called “Adjective-story”. The teacher writes down a story and leave out blank spots where the adjectives are supposed to be, the teacher ask each pupil for an adjective, without the pupils knowing the context. After the class has learned what adjectives are and how to conjugate them, this story can be a fun way to finish the class. The teacher could for example write a story about three horses, and when getting an adjective, the teacher could ask the class to conjugate it. For example, “The first horse was happy, the second was happier and the third was happiest.” or “The first horse was green, the second was more green and the third was most green.” The story continues, and it becomes funnier as the adjectives makes no sense to the context. The pupils will learn and hopefully remember what adjectives are. 

How important is grammar really?

By: Markus Skårnes

Grammar is a very important part of learning a language in my opinion. In some cases, lack of grammatical knowledge will hinder the ability to communicate what one really means. Grammar provides structure and rules to the words we use to communicate. Without this structure, the language would be quite weakened. However, due to its often difficult nature, grammar can sometimes demotivate language learners from learning a new language. This is why it is important to teach grammar in a way that can be motivating, engaging and hopefully even fun.

In my practice group we used song lyrics as part of an activity to practice nouns. Firstly, we introduced or revised the concept of nouns to make sure everybody understood. Secondly, we handed out sheets with song lyrics on them. While the pupils were listening to the song, they had the task of underlining the nouns in the lyric.

Lastly we had them tell us what nouns they found and then the plural form of those nouns if they were singular and the singular form if they were plural.

This way of teaching seemed quite motivating for the pupils. Anything where you can include something pupils like into grammar learning works well to make them actually pay attention.

When teaching grammar I sometimes found that I didn't feel too secure in my knowledge of it. This in spite of feeling like I have a good grasp of the English language overall. There was especially one case in which I wondered about the proper plural form of person. I did manage to explain it after a bit of research, but it is interesting to me that I was not able to come up with a proper explanation despite feeling like I was able to use the words correctly myself.

Teaching grammar

By: Maja Berntsen

A lot of students cringe when the word ”grammar” is mentioned in class because they know what is coming. Endless rules for when to use ”is” and ”are”, lists of glossaries that needs to be read at least a thousand times before they stick to the brain and not to forget the huge bible of grammar, how do you even find a single word in the beast that is also known as Oxford dictionary?

Yes, grammar can be super boring and seem meaningless at times, but without it it is impossible to become fluent in English both on paper and when communicating face to face. Grammar is the backbone for learning English and yes, we need to learn it to a certain extent. I do think that the pupils understand the importance of grammar, but they find it hard and complicated.

Grammar does not have to be super hard and complicated. The reason why pupils often find it that way might be because their teachers have made it hard and complicated. It is the teachers job to make it less boring and change the pupils’ attitudes towards grammar. You could probably walk in to any 7^th grade on a Wednesday and find the same type of grammar tasks being used. When the teachers are making grammar hard for the students, they will not understand it which makes the pupils think it is boring. It is boring because the teachers make it too hard.

Therefore, there should be more focus on how teachers can make grammar fun and how to get the pupils to see the importance of it. Drop the old traditional ways of teaching it, try new ways and most importantly, keep it positive! The pupils will find grammar boring and hard if you as a teacher give the impression that grammar is boring and hard.

I always hated grammar in primary school because I could not get my head around it. After I started watching series and reading books in English, I suddenly mastered grammar which was a huge step for me, because suddenly English was fun and it soon became my favourite subject.

Because of this personal experience, I think that there is a lot of pupils who will benefit from learning grammar unconsciously in addition to learning it the traditional way. Obviously, it is impossible to find a way that works for everyone, but having more than one way to teach grammar will always reach out to more pupils.

Importance of grammar

When it comes to how important grammar is in learning English as a second/foreign language, I will say it is important. In my opinion, it has become even more important in recent years. This is because of how society has developed and become more “international”. For the pupils and their age group that are introduced to online gaming and the internet, where they meet other people from all around the world. When it comes to “grown-ups”, the rapid globalization makes it important to know the language that is used the most when communicating with people from foreign countries in our part of the world, namely English. For both youth and adults it is now important to know how to communicate in English, and be able to use correct language. Both in written and oral communication.

I believe it is easy for pupils to dislike grammar, because of method in which teacher usually teach it. If I, as a teacher, can find a “fun” way to do it, maybe the pupils will start to get a more positive mindset when it comes to that part of the English subject. Of course, it will be difficult to avoid using the traditional methods, but try to mix it up from time to time. Use books, films and try to find activities that can help the learning process, but still implement them with the correct theoretical knowledge.

I have not had much experience with how grammar is taught other than my own when I was a pupil. That was mostly, as I remember it, the traditional “boring” way. Trying not to only use that method of teaching, I have tried to come up with an exercise that could be different.

This exercise is all about teaching the pupils the difference between a subject, direct object and indirect object in a sentence. This will take place after an introduction of subject, direct object and indirect object from the teacher where it is shown in an analyzed sentence what the difference is.

1        

       1.Split the class in pairs

2          2. Give them an object they can pass to each other

3         3. Tell them to figure out, in what situation they are the subject, and in what they are the indirect object.

In taking a more practical approach, I believe the pupils will better remember the difference between subject, direct object and indirect object.

Håvard Sæbø

Practicing English grammar in school

I think that grammar is a very important part in learning English as a second language. Grammar is the basic pieces of the language, and in order to make yourself understood in the correct way it is important to have basic knowledge about the English grammar. When I was in primary school, I thought grammar was boring, but I am quite sure that learning grammar in school has helped me out a lot more than I am aware of. The great thing about grammar is that when you “master” it, it makes everything a lot easier. It is easier to write an article in English when you have the grammar under control, because you can pay more attention to the content of the text, rather than how to build the sentences. It is of course possible to make yourself understood without having too much knowledge about grammar, but it will be a lot harder and take more time. Grammar makes everything easier!

I have not experienced that much in my practice period when it comes to grammar, but I have observed the lack of knowledge around terms such as “nouns”, “adjectives”, “verbs” and so on. In order to get more control on these terms, I have a suggestion for an exercise to do in class. Chose a song, poem or short text that suits the pupils’ age. The pupils will then underline for instance the nouns and verbs in the text. This will make the pupils more aware of the words in the text and what effect they have in the text. The pupils can then use the underlined verbs to write their own poem or text. This is a creative task for the pupils, where they will practice both writing skills and their grammar skills. You could also let the pupils use a text of their own choice. In that way, the pupils might be more motivated and they can recreate a text they already know by using the nouns and verbs from the text. 

Written by Martine Olsborg

Using short texts to improve grammar.

      Using correct grammar is important for understanding the English language and the English subject better. Being able to use correct grammar is also important if you are going to use written communication, as we often do. Social media is being used more frequently, and being able to write correct grammar is perhaps more important now than before.


Therefore it is important for teachers to learn grammar to pupils. However, I think the choice of method is something to be discussed. Most pupils will arguably “hate” learning grammar, because many pupils will find it to be hard and frustrating to understand and master. It is essential for teachers to keep the pupils motivated when teaching grammar, as it can be difficult/boring for pupils. If the pupils are motivated and encouraged when working with grammar, it will most likely go much easier. Exactly how to motivate pupils can of course be discussed further.




There are several exercises we can use when we are teaching grammar. I have observed few grammar exercises myself, but I got ideas from Introducing English Grammar (p. 132). 

The exercise is explained below, followed but how I would use them in a teaching situation. 

Exercise example: 


A)        Underline all the verbs and nouns you can find in this text. 


B)        This text is written in present tense, try to re-write the text in past tense.


Task A is quite straightforward. However, as the teacher you should find a text that is manageable, but not to easy, depending on what age group you are teaching. If the text chosen is a good fit for the task, the students will get a lot of practice distinguishing the verbs and the nouns. Another idea is to pair up the students, and see if they have different answers. How to choose what word class to focus on depends on what kind of text is chosen. 


Task B is another example of how a text can be used for students to practice grammar. As long as the text chosen is written in present tense, the plot of the text is not as important. The reason I would chose to do this task after task A is because most of the present tense verbs they find in task A will most likely be different when written in past tense. 

Kristian Granås.

English grammar

English grammar is very important to teach the pupils who has English as a second language. Many thinks of grammar as boring and unnecessary, and I must admit that I too when I was little didn`t think very highly of grammar. Every time I heard words like “Nouns”, “verbs”, “Adjectives” and so on I just zoomed out. It`s important to know grammar because we use the English language so much, the world has become multicultural. English is a lingua franca (a world language) which means that wherever you travel there will be people who you can communicate with( if you know English).  LK06 requires that the students from year 7-10 works toward a goal that says: “use central patterns for orthography, word inflection, sentence and text construction to produce texts” (Udir.no LK06 upper secondary class). To understand how to construct a sentence and a text you need grammar.

When is it important to know proper English grammar?

-        -   When you are studying abroad

-          - When you apply for a job abroad

-          - When you write letters to people who speak English

-          - Maybe when you have a blog where all entries is in English

-          - When you are chatting with people across the world

I I don`t have any experience in teaching grammar, nor have I observed grammar teaching in my practiceperiod, but this is one exercise I would like to try out.

One exercise you can do to make grammar more fun, and make the pupils forget what they think of grammar is to make a competition. We have a game in Norway we call “by og land”, City and country in English. You divide the class into groups of four or five, and give each a blank sheet and a pen. Each group has to write on the top of the sheet “Nouns, Verbs, adjectives and adverbs”, the teacher gives the groups a letter they have to find a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb, the first group to finish has to yell out. Two points for each right answer, one point if someone else has the same as you. You should do this for about five letters. I think this kind of task is suitable for 6-7^th graders, there is a prerequisite that the pupils has gone through the different word classes. I would start the class with a little reminder, and maybe an example on how to solve the task.   

-Karita Hansen 

Whether grammar is important or not

By Karoline Lilleberg 

Whether grammar is important or not depends on the situation. For pupils in school it is very important, because they’re being evaluated in it, both written and oral. A student will not be able to achieve full score without good grammar. In our case, it’s more important than others to know our grammar, because we’re going to be the ones who is teaching grammar at some point. When you’re learning a foreign language there will be a certain insecurity, and in this case the teacher has a very important role. I think that in many cases the pupils are going to copy your language and grammar from you as a teacher. From my own experiences, I’ve seen that pupils copy your pronunciation, so I would not be surprised if they copy your grammar as well, both in writing and speaking. The teacher also has to show that learning a new language is fun rather than scare with grammar. Because when you’re learning grammar it’s much of fail-and-learn, and there is no harm in it. And study do show that this is a good way of learning.

On the other hand, for some the grammar is not that important. In several situations, it’s all about making yourself understood. I hope everyone will accomplish that when learning both a second or a foreign language.

I believe that learning grammar is something that takes time. You may learn it and know it well one week, but the next it’s a bit faded. To really learn it you have to practice it often, it’s like riding a bicycle. I remember when I first learned to ride one by myself, but after the winter, I could not remember how to do it anymore. Then I had to do some practice again to succeed. I feel like it’s the same principle when learning grammar. Maybe pupils doesn’t have enough of the subject of English in school to learn it fully. I’ve also experienced that the ones who’s got their grammar correct and their language, is the ones who also has relevant hobbies. For example, reading English, playing video games or watching movies. To learn grammar you have to do more than just practise the rules that follow and where to use which article and such.

One activity to practise grammar is to give each of the pupils their own book to read in, and on beforehand make them aware of what they/we are practising. Maybe they can choose a book of their own, it kind of makes it more special and they will also read something they find interesting. This might make it easier to work with later on, both for the pupil and the teacher. For every English lesson each of the pupils can present something that has to do with grammar, for example make them pick out a sentence they liked from what they’ve read and work with that somehow. Like we’ve done in class with Minjeong. 

Killing the boogeyman of English learners with adaptive methods

“How important do you think “grammar” is in learning English as a second language?” 

I believe grammar lessons influenced my comprehension of English more than I like to think. We had the traditional, repetitive, boring stuff but for my part it was not all that bad. Because I got dragged into the virtual world online as it developed, I felt true joy when I were able to speak with people from far away through chats in games and chatting systems in general. Therefore I were often paying attention and trying to keep my interest at top. My improvement in grammar could have been significantly faster and better in general with more activity balance and positivity around the subject. Attitudes are created in seconds and lost over years and I think the general opinion of grammar was an attributing factor to a rather slow paced progress. The things I learned from grammar lessons were very useful later. I wish teachers didn’t think of grammar as something pupils have to endure when it could be enjoyed. The influential factor of media exposure can be truly beneficial and grammar can easily be dismissed as an unnecessary practice. Reaching an adaptive way of writing with the potential to choose the right style according to context comes from a complete understanding of a language, which cannot be achieved without the “backbone” that is grammatical knowledge.

“Describe an activity for teaching any grammatical points you have  used or observed during your practice period and reflect on your experience with teaching grammar”

I did not teach any grammar myself during my first practice period, neither did I observe grammar lessons being taught. However I remember how we approached poetry and new vocabulary. The methods we applied were based on an active classroom both orally and physically. One of the activities revolved around moving around in an open space and keeping conversation going based on pre-written sentences including new words. It was easy to tell that the pupils loved the activity, everyone participated and smiled as they walked around. Even though it was not specifically grammar, it is important to approach grammar teaching with the same attitude as any other subject.
As mentioned I have not taught grammar myself, however I imagine how I would approach the fifth grade class. If the class is learning about poetry it’s a great opportunity to apply the “grammar-to-go” method by Hæge Hestnes. When learning about poems, the teacher can purposely pick a poem suitable for both grammatical and poetical learning.  This method is based on the idea that grammar should not be treated as the boogeyman of English language learning and I totally agree. For fifth graders I would pick a poem containing simple sentences and familiar words. The goal of such a lesson could be to learn the difference between nouns, adjectives, verbs and their contextual interaction.

Sigve Guttormsen

Class Activity to learn new words.

By Tim-André Eriksen

I think “grammar” is an important thing to learn. Every day we are exposed to the English speaking world, be it by media, internet or books. Being able to understand and to communicate grammatically correct so that you are understood is very important. In the Knowledge Promotion it is specified that the students should be introduced to authentic material; so having a decent grasp on the building blocks of English language is crucial. For some learning English grammar can be a daunting task, so to make it easier for the students it is important to introduce it in a way that it is not hard or boring. So the work lies within the teacher to make English grammar seem fun as well as exciting.

One exercise that I heard of in my practice period was focused on learning new words and spelling them. It starts with having one word written on a piece of paper which is then given to a pupil. The pupil must then read it and try to write it as it is written while they sit on the piece of paper. If they become unsure or have difficulty writing it they can look at the paper again, but have to sit on it to be able to write. This is not only good for spelling, but also for training memory. This could be a competition in which the students that manage to write and spell most words win. In this particular exercise the focus will hopefully stay clear from the mundane in addition to boring way of acquiring vocabulary; to have more emphasis on the competition in addition to the fun that it might bring.

I would use an activity like that in class to introduce nouns, adjectives and even verbs. The first “match” could for example start with nouns so that the students are aware of what word class they are writing first. An activity like this I would use in primary school, at a fifth grade. I think that learning grammar can be made fun by activities like this alongside with giving lectures; as long as it is varied so that it is not too much of the one or the other.